Stocks of real estate investment trusts have long been highly sensitive to changes in interest rates.

Now David Shulman, a well-known REIT analyst has come up with a number for exactly what the relationship has been in the past two years between rates and REITs’ performance relative to the overall market: 79%. Read More »

The developer of a $750 million Four Seasons hotel and luxury condo development in Boston is using the same playbook as the folks who are building New York City’s tallest residential skyscraper.

Both developers relied on an orphan’s charity and the global elite to finance their ambitious projects.

In Boston, Carpenter & Company said it is borrowing $500 million from the Children’s Investment Fund Management. The group is affiliated with a foundation started by London-based investment manager Christopher Hohn, whose funds donate part of their profits to a charity that helps orphans.

Separately, Richard Friedman, Carpenter& Company’s chief executive officer, said his firm has raised about $180 million from high net-worth individuals around the globe through Citi Private Bank. The remaining equity is coming from Mr. Friedman and his business partners, he said. Read More »

Information was as abundant as optimism this week at the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas, where more than 75,000 home builders and suppliers gathered to discuss topics ranging from new building products to buyers’ preferences.

Many economists predict that 2014 will build upon the home-market gains from last year, bringing big increases in the number of homes built and of new homes sold. That bullish outlook contributed to rising attendance at the conference and a resurgence of exhibitors offering luxury and discretionary items. Read More »

Bethenny Frankel hosted Vanilla Ice at the CBS Broadcast Center on Oct. 16, 2013, in New York City.

Home builders and remodelers take heart: Even contractors with their own national television shows have trouble finding workers in certain construction trades these days.

“Right now, I can’t find good labor, because everybody is employed,” said Stephen Fanuka, whose Queens, N.Y., contracting business is the focus of Do It Yourself Network’s “Million Dollar Contractor” series.

Mr. Fanuka’s contracting company, Fanuka Inc., builds two luxury homes and handles more than 100 renovations each year for A-list clients such as comedienne Tina Fey. He spoke in an interview this week at the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas, attended by an estimated 80,000 builders and suppliers. At the show, the labor shortage in some markets was a common topic of conversation. Read More »

A panel of top economists expressed generally optimistic views Tuesday about the U.S. housing market, predicting sizeable gains in home construction and new-home sales this year as long as interest rates don’t rise too quickly and job growth continues to advance at a moderate pace.

Economists speaking at the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas, which is expected to draw 80,000 attendees this week, predicted a 20% increase in home construction this year and an even larger gain in new-home sales. They foresee home-price increases cooling from their double-digit percentage gains or recent years to rise this year by a more subdued 5%.

However, the economists – the National Association of Home Builders’ David Crowe, Freddie Mac’s Frank Nothaft and Nationwide Insurance’s David Berson — cautioned that much of their forecast relies on job growth hitting an average rate of 200,000 new jobs a month this year. That’s up from an average monthly rate of 182,000 in 2013. Read More »

California home builder New Home Co. did well Friday on its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange as its stock closed at $12.20, up 10.9% from its offering price.

The downside, though, is that New Home’s stock price was set Friday at just $11 a share, well below its expected range of $15 to $17 per share. That follows the path set last November by home-building peer LGI Homes Inc., which was expecting an initial stock price between $13 and $15, but was actually set at $11, then traded higher. Read More »

Several measures indicate that builders again started hiking prices last fall as buyers regained a bit of confidence in the market. A monthly survey of builders conducted by housing analysis firm John Burns Real Estate Consulting Inc. found that 24% of respondents raised their prices in December, up from a recent low of 19% in November.

The Burns survey, which included 231 respondents, also found that the percentage of respondents who lowered their prices declined to 8% in December from a recent high of 12% in October. Read More »

The U.S. Census Bureau announced Friday that housing construction starts totaled an estimated 923,400 units for 2013. That’s less than many analysts’ initial forecasts for the year and well below the long-term annual average of roughly 1.5 million starts.

Home builders, economists and analysts long have pointed to several factors that crimped the supply of new homes in the U.S. last year, including scarcity of buildable lots and tight labor markets in some regions. But many say the bigger culprit was weakened demand due to the 1-percentage-point rise in rates from May to September. Read More »

Lennar Corp. on Wednesday provided hope that the strongest home builders still can scratch out gains in an otherwise lackluster market, but it’s likely too early to declare that the new-home market’s recovery has emerged from its prolonged pause.

Lennar, one of the largest U.S. home builders, posted a 32% increase in net income for its quarter ended Nov. 30 to $164.1 million. The Miami-based builder’s contracts for new sales in the quarter increased by 13% to 4,498 at a time when most peers are reporting smaller gains or declines.

Analysts such as RBC Capital Markets’ Robert C. Wetenhall Jr. cautioned that Lennar’s results typically reflect the higher end of the new-home market rather than the entire market. Read More »

Ara Hovnanian, chief executive of Hovnanian Enterprises, during an interview on June 7.

Home builder Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. signaled Thursday that the housing market recovery regained some lost ground of late as the builder’s new sales contracts bounced back in October and November to match its year-ago tallies.

Hovnanian’s regained momentum, however slight, came after it posted an 8.9% decline in new contracts in the entire quarter ended Oct. 31, including joint ventures, from the year ago period. Many builders struggled in that period as rising home prices, federal budget battles and a 1-percentage-point increase in interest rates from May to September cowed buyers.

Hovnanian’s results for its fourth quarter ended Oct. 31 and fiscal 2013, which included the builder’s first annual profit since 2006, generally pleased investors and analysts. Read More »